Dimensions of Self-Expression in Facebook Status Updates

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Description

We describe the dimensions along which Facebook users
tend to express themselves via status updates using the semiautomated
text analysis approach, the Meaning Extraction
Method (MEM). First, we examined dimensions of selfexpression
in all status updates from a sample of four million
Facebook users from four English-speaking countries (the
United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia)
in order to examine how these countries vary in their selfexpressions.
All four countries showed a basic threecomponent
structure, indicating that the medium is a stronger
influence than country characteristics or demographics on
how people use Facebook status updates. In each country,
people vary in terms of the extent to which they use Informal
Speech, share Positive Events, and discuss School in their
Facebook status updates. Together, these factors tell us how
users differ in their self-expression, and thus illustrate meaningful
use cases for the product: Talking about what’s going
on tends to be positive, and people vary in terms of the extent
to which their status updates are short, slangy emotional
expressions and topics regarding school. The specific words
that define these factors showed subtle differences across
countries: The use of profanity indicates fewer school words
(but only in Australia), whereas the UK shows greater use of
slang terms (rather than profanity) when speaking informally.
The MEM also identified English-language dialects as a
meaningful dimension along which the countries varied. In
sum, beyond simply indicating topicality of posts, this study
provides insight into how status updates are used for selfexpression.
We discuss several theoretical frameworks that
could produce these results, and more broadly discuss the
generation of theoretical frameworks from wholly empirical
data (such as naturalistic Internet speech) using the MEM.